Alyn Beck, 41, one of two Las Vegas police officers slain in an ambush Sunday, had been with the department since 2001 and leaves behind a wife and three children.

He was a senior patrol officer who had taught advanced officer skills training at the Las Vegas police academy.

Tracy Smith, a friend of Beck's, wrote on his blog, "My friend Alyn was a dynamite guy. He was a riot to be around. He was kind and funny. He was capable of ridiculously juvenile behavior but also shockingly profound intellectual depth."

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Smith told CNN on Monday, "Alyn was a good person — all he wanted to do was help people. He was a fine guy. We're talking about a guy who on the one hand was a deadly trained weapon, capable of a massive amount of force — strong and powerful. On the other hand, he was tender. He was gentle."

Alyn Beck, 41, was one of two Las Vegas police officers shot and killed by two assailants Sunday at a pizza restaurant.(Photo: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via Getty Images)

Beck, he wrote, "was an amazing father and a loyal and loving husband" who liked to swim with his kids in the backyard and was overjoyed with becoming a father again, more than a decade after raising his first two children. "He loved going dancing with his wife (a scene I could never fully comprehend!), and surprisingly, he even liked musicals."

He said Beck was a "top-notch cop" who was "the first guy through the door" during raids. "He relished telling stories about busting down the door of white supremacist gangs, about chasing down gang-bangers after a mile-long foot chase, and about consistently outsmarting bad guys. He was the guy you picture when you think of a trained weapon. He was the guy you would want showing up if you were in any kind of danger, because he was fearless and beyond capable."

In a Monday briefing, police said one of the suspects, Jerad Miller, shot Beck's partner, Igor Soldo, at point-blank range as the officers ate lunch, killing him instantly, before shooting Beck dead as he reacted.

Two Las Vegas police officers were ambushed and killed while eating lunch Sunday by a man and woman who later killed a third person before turning the guns on themselves. A Las Vegas newspaper reports the couple had white supremacy paraphernalia.